The role of the idealizing transference in the treatment of psychotic patients.

A segment of the psychotherapy with a schizophrenic woman and her psychological testing are presented in this paper. The authors focus on the role of the idealizing transference, and illustrate how its operation, along with the mechanisms of fusion, basic trust, and narcissistic alliance, facilitates the process of therapeutically transforming this patient's object representations. Changes in her hallucinations and delusions reflected this process. The idealizing transference may be more generally applicable in the treatment of individuals with schizophrenic psychosis than was previously thought. Its importance lies in catalyzing changes in patient object representations, object relations, and psychotic symptoms.